Utility of Strain Echocardiography at Rest and After Stress Testing in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia

Current and future role of echocardiography in arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy

“…Moreover, deformation imaging reveals subtle wall motion abnormalities often in the absence of RV dilatation, global RV systolic function, and visual wall motion abnormalities [17]. Therefore, diagnostic performance of peak systolic strain was found to be superior to conventional measurements in ARVD/C patients [17,42,47]. A cut-off value of -18% peak systolic strain, to differentiate between normal and abnormal RV segments, seems to be a reliable parameter and was reported by Prakasa et al [47].…”

“…6) [20,36,45]. Peak systolic strain seems to be a reliable measurement of impaired wall motion and has high diagnostic value [17,20,42,46,47]. Moreover, deformation imaging reveals subtle wall motion abnormalities often in the absence of RV dilatation, global RV systolic function, and visual wall motion abnormalities [17].…”

“…5). The RV lateral free wall recordings, acquired in the apical 4 chamber view, are feasible for deformation imaging (> 90%) in ARVD/C patients [17,42,43]. Limitations in temporal resolution and angle dependency exclude the anterior, inferior, and RVOT for optimal deformation imaging analysis.…”

“…Extensive exercise seems to accelerate the course of disease. Acute effect of exercise on cardiac function was explored with stress echocardiography by Vitarelli et al [42]. The normal increase in both RV and LV global longitudinal shortening was reduced after exercise in ARVD/C patients compared to controls.…”

“…Diagnostic performance of these parameters exceeded both conventional measurements and regional longitudinal strain parameters. Both sensitivity and specificity were reported as greater than 90% [42].…”